First Light Designs announced today that they’ve licensed the real sky from the Almighty for use in the award winning astronomy program Distant Suns. Mike Smithwick, the author of the popular iPad app, says that the Lord will help integrate his unique ReST technology, Real Star Technology technology, into his own software over the next era. “While Apple’s devices have terrific capabilities on their own, it became necessary to reach out and...

In the next couple of weeks you will likely hear much about a comet with the decidedly unglamorous name of “Pan-STARRS” (or technically: “Comet C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS”). The first significant naked eye comet since Comet McNaught in2007, Pan-STARRS is already visible to the southern hemisphere and brightening steadily each day. Dozens of comets are discovered each year, most quietly anonymous, meekly shining at magnitudes that require very...

Now it can be told: I am very proud to announce today that Distant Suns has joined forces with Astronomy Magazine, the world’s largest magazine on amateur astronomy and now in its 40th year  (I was a charter subscriber. Yes, I am that old). You can see the first fruits of this arrangement in the most recent release of the iOS version as it powers the news ticker. Over the next few months, I hope to be able to link Distant Suns with ever...

Otherwise called “New Zealand.” This is above Fox Glacier in a helicopter. Tough job! When watching The Hobbit, it was easy to see why they chose this area for filming. There’s a B&B in the North Island with an observatory that is just calling for an “inspection.”

I have received a some of emails regarding the latest release of Distant Suns(max) causing occasional crashes on startup.  I have found one possible problem on iPads running with pre-iOS 5 installations. So you can fix it by upgrading. If that doesn’t work it might be something else, so contact us at here, and report what version of iOS and device you are using.

Eclipse Day! Finally here! My very first total eclipse. Many in our group have seen 5 or more. My roommate is on his 7th. I never thought much of going halfway around the world to see something that lasted in this case, a mere 2 minutes, 9 seconds. People who do this are called “eclipse chasers”. But finally had some sense knocked into me when I realized that the eclipse is just a part of an otherwise fascinating journey. Each spot in the...